A last bit of speedwork

I headed to the track last night for my final speed session before the National Half.  Unfortunately, when I got there it was closed for a high school lacrosse game.  I ran two weeks ago when there was a soccer game, but I guess that lacrosse has been deemed more "dangerous" than soccer.   I suppose it would hurt to be hit with a lacrosse ball that came flying off the field, but clearly I am too fast for that to happen. ;-)

At first I was just going to run around the large block that contains the school, track and playing fields, but then I decided to use the W&O trail instead.  I set up an interval workout on my Garmin and attempt to do the majority of my fast running on the one flat stretch near the track.  Fortunately I had 400s on the schedule, so I was able to avoid too much hill running.  I have commented before that I am a poor downhill runner and these 400s confirmed it!  The odd ones ended with a short uphill, while the even ones started with a short downhill, and the times showed no differences.  I was remarkably consistent throughout and all of them were within 2 seconds of each other.

When I finished up the intervals, I noticed dark clouds rolling in and lightning in the distance.

It looked more intimidating in person, I swear! 

I wasn't sure when the sky was going to open up, so I cut my warmup a bit short and finished it out by running laps around the parking lot.  I figured that way I could jump in my car really quickly, rather than being blocks away.  Fortunately, no one else was in the parking lot or I might have gotten some strange looks.

Perfect spot for running, right? 

It was a  good workout to end this training cycle.  I know it's not technically over until Saturday's race, but I only have an easy run on Wednesday and easy cross training day on Thursday, so I feel like the work is done.  Or as my old college swim coach would say, "the money is in the bank."  I'm definitely ready to cash in on Saturday!

Sweaty, but done.